Describe a Person Who Has Inspired You
A natural, Band 8 model answer for the IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card 'Describe a person who has inspired you', plus a breakdown of why it scores well and the Part 3 follow-up questions.
Cue Card
Describe a person who has inspired you.
You should say:
- who this person is
- how you know them
- what they did
And explain why this person inspired you.
This is one of the most common cue cards in the entire IELTS Speaking bank, and precisely because it is so common, examiners hear a lot of flat, predictable answers about Steve Jobs or a generic "my mother". The trick is not to pick an impressive person — it is to talk about a real person with specific detail, because specificity is what makes you sound fluent and genuine rather than rehearsed.
Below is a model answer at roughly Band 8. Notice that the speaker chooses an ordinary person — a school teacher — but makes the answer memorable through concrete, slightly unexpected details. Read it aloud and time yourself; it runs to just under two minutes at a natural pace.
Model Answer
Band 8I'd like to talk about my chemistry teacher from secondary school, a woman called Mrs Okafor. I wouldn't say she was famous or extraordinary in any obvious way — she taught in an ordinary state school with not much equipment — but she had a bigger influence on me than almost anyone else I can think of.
I knew her for about three years, from when I was around fourteen. What stood out about her was that she refused to let anyone in the class believe they were "bad at science". There was this one moment I still remember vividly: I'd failed a test quite badly and I told her, half-joking, that my brain just wasn't wired for chemistry. Instead of reassuring me, she sat me down after class and showed me that I'd actually understood the hard part — I'd just made careless mistakes because I was rushing. She had this way of being honest without ever being discouraging.
Over that year she basically rebuilt my confidence from scratch. She'd set me slightly harder problems than everyone else, not as a punishment but because she said she could see I'd enjoy them, and she was right. By the end of school, chemistry had gone from my worst subject to the one I chose to study at university.
The reason she inspired me, I think, is that she changed how I saw effort. Before her, I assumed you were either naturally good at something or you weren't. She showed me that ability is mostly just patience plus practice, and honestly that idea has stayed with me in everything since — not just studying, but work, learning languages, all of it. So even though she'll probably never know it, she shaped the way I approach pretty much every difficult thing I do.
Why This Answer Works
- It avoids the obvious choice. Picking an ordinary teacher instead of a celebrity immediately sounds more authentic, and authenticity is impossible to memorise. The examiner can tell this is a real person.
- It uses a specific anecdote. The failed test and the after-class conversation give the answer a concrete scene rather than vague praise like "she was very kind and helpful". One vivid moment is worth ten general adjectives.
- It covers all the bullet points naturally — who (chemistry teacher), how you know them (three years from age fourteen), what they did (rebuilt confidence, set harder problems) — without robotically announcing "Now I will tell you what she did."
- The 'why' goes deeper than the question asks. Instead of stopping at "she inspired me to study chemistry", the speaker extracts a transferable life lesson about effort versus talent. That reflective, slightly abstract ending is exactly the kind of development that pushes an answer toward Band 8.
Key Phrases to Steal
“I wouldn't say she was... but”
A natural concession structure that sounds spontaneous and shows grammatical range.
“had a bigger influence on me than almost anyone”
Comparative structure used for emphasis — better than 'she influenced me a lot'.
“I still remember vividly”
Signals a specific memory is coming; buys a moment of thinking time naturally.
“rebuilt my confidence from scratch”
A natural collocation that's more vivid than 'gave me confidence'.
“that idea has stayed with me”
Links a past experience to the present — shows time-frame flexibility.
Part 3 Follow-Up Questions
Do you think young people today have good role models?
It's a bit of a mixed picture, honestly. On one hand, social media has given young people access to genuinely inspiring figures they'd never have encountered otherwise — scientists, activists, entrepreneurs. But on the other, a lot of the people who get the most attention online are famous simply for being famous, and I do worry that success without any real substance gets glamorised. So I'd say the role models are out there, but young people have to be more discerning than my generation did to find them.
Is it better to be inspired by someone you know or by a public figure?
I'd lean towards someone you actually know, personally. With a public figure you only ever see the polished version — you don't see the failures or the boring, consistent work behind the success, so it can set an unrealistic standard. Someone close to you, you see the whole picture, and that makes the inspiration feel more achievable. That said, public figures can broaden your horizons in a way the people around you sometimes can't, so ideally you'd have both.
Why do some people fail to inspire others even in important positions?
I think it usually comes down to a gap between what they say and what they do. People are remarkably good at sensing insincerity, so a leader who lectures others but doesn't live by the same standards tends to lose credibility very quickly. Inspiration seems to come less from authority or position and more from authenticity — from people clearly believing in what they're doing.
Now Try It Out Loud
Reading a model answer is one thing — saying it under pressure is another. Practise this exact cue card with our AI examiner and get instant band-score feedback.